Star Patron
by niconiconyx
Summary: Burnt, broken, like shattered glass melting away into nothingness. That's what these students have become. Blessed-no, cursed, with abnormal powers out of their control. A school that houses them, veiling their true purpose. In this world, they are hidden away, scared of tearing apart the world itself.
1. Teams

_Here are the teams for Star Patron! Please note that this is preliminary, and if you hate hate_ _ **hate**_ _someone (why would you though : be friendssssss) or want someone else on your team, you can ask me and I may or may not entertain your request._

 _the following was typed out by memory so please correct me if you have a different horoscope/constellation lmfao_

my wattpad and irl friend helped me with the teams! Thanks shizu lmao

Unless it says , it's a wattpad friend cx I'm more popular there

 **Bolded- Group Leader**

Team 1: **[Pisces] Eternal Nexus Warrior ( ),** [Taurus] Deliquescent, ( ), [Orion] Khione ( ), [Libra] _VictoryVictini_, [Lynx] Kinu (Shinju's OC)

Team 2: [Phoenix] Sheare, **[Aquarius]** VanillaWind, [Cancer] pi_memorizer, [Aquila] lazuriteoftheskies, [Cetus] silentdroplets (ik it wasn't there before but it's an early birthday present for her !)

Team 3: **[Aries]** **Stormlocke** **,** [Gemini] Demoniscy, [Leo] me (sorry guys you're stuck with a lil shit obsessed with teru teru bozus), [Virgo] mawile_xoxo, [Perseus] lunacrest ( /irl friend)

Team 4: [Draco] ForeverMoonlight, **[Sagittarius]** **CottonCandyMe** **,** [Scorpio] Alphanix, [Pegasus] HoennChessShipper, [Capricorn] iicinnamonbunz

Current team rankings:

1\. Team 4

2\. Team 3/2 tied (note from my oc: we can do this guys yE break that tie)

4\. Team 1

 _okay I'll actuall chapter sometime eh bye_


	2. Prologue

"Oi, Azur! Wake the hell up and get ready your shit in ten minutes!"

Katlin was met with nothing but silence for a few moments—then, the black-haired girl beside her opened her eyes, groggy from the haze hanging over her eyes—and Azur grabbed the nearest item next to her and flung it at the Constellation next to her.

"No one tells me to wake up," the teenager sighed—she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that her friend was reeling from the pillow that had just slammed into her face. "Still, out of consideration that it's the first day of school…fine."

She climbed out of bed—albeit reluctant—just as a Zodiac walked into the room, taking one glance at the two girls before scowling and throwing two muffins towards them.

Vani sighed—she'd already changed for class—and walked over, throwing a glare at Katlin and forcing the older girl to move to one side. "What did I tell you?" she muttered. "Star Patron is a school for protecting Constellations and Zodiacs. If you won't follow the rules, then I regret ever introducing you both to the school in the first place."

With that, she ran her fingers across the harp in her hands—and a hand of water appeared in the air, grabbing on to Azur and throwing the girl out of her recluse. "Seven more minutes before class starts—good luck. You won't be missing much, but _I'd_ like to get there on time to see my team."

Shouting a muffled "screw you" after the Zodiac's disappearing figure, the raven-haired teenager—somehow, she represented Aquila despite her personality—clambered out of her bed and reaching out for the pile of clothes in front of her.

"I guess we should be more excited," she commented. "I mean, we're a new batch of students—and we'll actually be able to have fun and all that shit."

" _And_ this sounds like a cliched line straight from some movie," Katlin mumbled in response. "But you're right. Star Patron does sound exciting—and, according to Vani, there are people even stronger than me here. That's a first."

Azur stood up, making a beeline for the small bathroom as she thought out a witty reply. "Are you sure?" she teased, conjuring a small hovercraft out of the surrounding air and gliding through the door with ease. "Because the last time I checked, Vani kind of crushed you in a battle."

"T—That…That never happened."

• • •

The two of them had ended up being five minutes late—from what Vani had said, they'd expected some kind of punishment—but the supervisor just sighed, as if he was used to that sort of thing happening, and waved them off to the noticeboard.

"Adan!" The Aquila waved frantically as she spotted her red-haired friend—another rookie amongst them—and she tiptoed in order to even _see_ over the crowd. "We were late—uh, could you help us check our teams? There're too many people here."

Nodding, the boy looked back up at the large sheet of paper tacked to the wall. "You, Kat and Vani are on Team 2," he read. "Along with someone called Levi and someone _else_ called Shizuka. No idea who they are, though."

"I'm on a different team," he sighed. "You three are lucky you got to be together—the only other newbie here is Calla. Shinju—I've heard of her, at least—has been here for three months, and I have no idea who Nika or Nyxia is."

He was interrupted by someone tapping his shoulder, and he looked down to see a small-sized girl—she could have almost been mistaken for a child, with her large lilac eyes and messy black hair.

"You're Adan?" She tilted her head—and he was intimidated by the soullessness of her purple irises. "I'm Nika, representing Perseus—nice to meet you," she greeted. "I've been here for two years, so I'm among the most experienced in Team 3—I think I'm almost as experienced as Nyxia."

She startled as one of her friends joined the conversation, the tall teenager flashing them a gentle smile. "Ranmaru from Team 1, Pisces," he started, giving a brief introduction to Alan before continuing on. "Nyxia's been here for three years—around the same period of time as me and Christina. She's not here now, though—she's been gone on some mission for months. Apparently, she'll be back within the week, so you may be lucky."

Nika glanced back up at the board. "So you're representing Aries, huh?" Her voice was genuinely curious, and she bounced slightly as she struggled to see over the small crowd. "Cool. Shinju's Gemini—she's really, really strong! And Calla—" she gave up trying to read, falling back down to her original height as someone else blocked her vie. "—dammit."

"It's nice to meet you, anyway," Adan offered. "My friends may be in another team, but it's a great opportunity to expand my social circle."

Nika simply laughed. "We're having a team battle today—it's to get used to our teams…" Her voice trailed off for a moment. "Well, shall we go and find Calla?"

• • •

"Why's your name Levi, though?"

Shizuka narrowed her eyes at the taller boy across her—they were on the same team, yes, but she wanted to know _why_ his name was associated with the creator of jeans. "You know we have to get along," she taunted. "I need to know this. It's going to plague me for the rest of my life."

The older teenager simply let out an exasperated sigh. "I have no idea," he tried to reason. "Do you think I _named_ myself? Maybe my parents were a really big fan of jeans…or something. Anyway, I see our other team members over there—perhaps we can introduce ourselves?"

The Shinigami—also representing Cetus—crossed her arms, obviously dissatisfied with his answer. "I'm letting you off this time," she sighed. "And fine. We can be the first team to have assembled all five members—maybe that way we'll be stronger and more well-known!"

"Team 1's already done with that," Katlin answered, noticing the duo—they weren't too far away, after all—and beckoning her friends over. "Still…both of you look quite strong. We're all newbies, right? I mean, except for Vani."

"I've been here for six months, actually," Shizuka volunteered. "I'm still considered new, but I'm from that era before Nyxia left on a mission. It's become a pretty rare era, if you ask me."

Nyxia's name caught the attention of someone from Team 1—she was pretty sure her name was Kinu—tilted her head as she spoke. "Nyxia?" Her voice was curious, and it fluctuated in pitch—as if she had too much caffeine or something. "I was late arriving to school—and apparently she's back or something."

"Wait, she _is?"_ Ranmaru raised an eyebrow, shooting an expectant glance at the doorway. "She's been gone for five months—all of us weren't even sure if she would come back. I'm going to go and see if she's really here—hey, Christina, come with me!"

"Ooh, she's on our team, right?" Shinju hopped in anticipation, grabbing on to Calla's hand with nearly enough force to shatter her wrist. "I have no idea who she is, but let's go and check out how strong she is! We can drag the rest of our members along too—"

The Virgo next to her simply gave her a pointed glance, carving a sliver of air from the sky and wrapping it over around her teammate's mouth. She turned to Adan—she knew that this guy was their team leader, but he gave off a sort of bad vibe. "Are you going?"

"What type of leader would I be if I didn't?" The Aries gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course I'm going."

• • •

"Nyxia, you didn't tell us you would be returning today."

The twin-tailed girl sighed at Ranmaru's sentence—and her tense grip relaxed once she realised she was back in a familiar setting."Sorry," she apologised, accepting the boy's invitation to actually _enter_ the building. "I was kind of…held up somewhere."

"You're beat up," Christina noted. "It must have been a tough mission—but you can make use of the regeneration spells placed around here, right?"

She nodded, glancing around at the small crowd of people that had grown curious about her arrival. "This place looks different than before," she breathed. "I recognise these new members—they're the ones the Principal told me about, right? I have all their bios here."

"Who are you?" Shinju asked, earning a few murmurs of agreement—most of the newbies were curious about the youthful girl's identity. "I have no idea who you are, and you're on my team. Are you strong? Do—"

"Highest Special Attack in the school," she answered, voice sly as she looked in the Gemini's direction. "Other than that, I have no idea—haven't really measured myself against anyone for five months."

"Cut all that crap," Shizuka shouted, charging in and spotting her friend in the doorway. "We're having a team free-for-all in half an hour. You can fight me, then—we're all different teams and I'm going to _slay_ you. Utterly and completely."

Nyxia smiled. "Interesting," she laughed. "I do hope that these five months actually did something to your strength. And, to my team members…I hope I can measure up to your collective strength."


	3. One

"I'm assuming that you all at least _know_ how to use your powers." The supervisor—teachers weren't really needed in the school glanced around at the newbies, pleased when she wasn't met with any strong form of disagreement. "Good—then, I guess we can commence the team battles."

She blew her whistle, and a piercing shriek filled the room—with that, the teams were off to the forest, left to their own devices until the final team emerged champion. She wasn't too worried about injuries—if they were defeated in such a way that they were in danger of death, the regeneration spells would take care of that.

As the students dispersed further into the woods, Adan gathered up his team members, looking around for a quiet spot before dishing out a series of instructions. "My ability is to predict out possibilities of the future," he explained. "Thus, I'll be giving you instructions through your earpieces."

"I can advise you on strategies," Nyxia offered. "I've done the most battling in the team, after all—I'll listen to what Adan says and figure out the best route from there."

The boy laughed. "I'm new, so I don't have the best control—please don't blame me if I lead you into the wrong future." Then, he focused, his eyes going dull for a few moments before looking back up. "According to my ability, Calla should try and fight Shizuka. Shinju will go against Katlin, I'll go against Vani—and Nika and Azur will battle. Strange—they're all in Team 2."

"That leaves me with Levi, then." The Zodiac nodded to herself as she contemplated the idea. "I'd say he's the weakest member in Vani's team—according to the data on him, that is. I'm issuing commands, so that wouldn't be too hard of a job."

"Are we done?" Shinju fidgeted in anticipation, the cat charm in her palm glittering in the sunlight. "I stole Nyxia's file for a while—you know, the one where she gets all the information about us. Katlin's the smoky one, right?"

Adan thought back to his friend, amused by the word that she'd picked to describe her. "Uh…well, her powers are smoky. That's for sure."

The Gemini licked her lips, as if the notion brought her some kind of twisted pleasure—then, she jumped onto a tree branch, surveying her surroundings before making an effortless leap to the next tree—and all too soon, she had disappeared into the battlefield.

Taking that as a sign to commence their battles, the rest of the team then split up—it was time to get down to business.

• • •

"Woah…so Nyxia was right." Calla shot a glare at the Shinigami opposite her—the atmosphere was definitely more humid, and stray traces of electricity flew around the Constellation's head. "She said you'd be around here."

Shizuka smiled back in response, unsheathing her sword and twirling it around in her hand. "She ratted me out? Shame—I'll just have to pay her back later. For now…" The sky seemed to darken, storm clouds swirling in a circle above her opponent. "I have an opponent to defeat."

"Over-confident, are you?" The girl's expression was indifferent, and a wreath of smoke curled up into the air to counter Shizuka's attack. "I'll have you know that I have no plan on losing either. Your ability is certainly _risky."_

 _Katlin's ability?_ The Cetus' eyes widened at the sight, and Calla proceeded with an even bigger surprise—flames danced along the ground, contributing to the haze that was starting to drown her attack—it was getting far too hot to use most of her attacks.

Grunting, her opponent jumped back, noticing a lake near her and blessing whatever deity had put it there. "H—Hayate Yajū!" she called, raising her blade to draw a wave of liquid from the water body. "Counter whatever the _hell_ that is!"

Her weapon was only too happy to comply—a stream of water nearly _leaped_ out from its original home, dousing the flames before her and rendering her attacks usable once again. The air was now at a reasonable temperature—and she planned to use that to her advantage.

"Kumo Shokan!" The thunderstorm was back in place now, and a lightning bolt crashed down, surrounding her sword with a barrier of electricity.

"Tch." Calla winced in pain as she felt the blade skim past her side—she had to be wary of her opponent's weapon. She raised her arm, a row of knives appearing in front of her and shielding her from Shizuka's next strike. "I'm not that easy to defeat."

Her array of weapons—which were already impressive to start with—seemed to multiply, forming a haphazard barrier around her and starting to glow with an eerie indigo.

"Kinu's enchantment magic." A smirk formed on the younger girl's face. "I passed by her earlier this morning, and took the chance to copy her magic. I've copied almost everyone's here, actually—so do you think you can even beat me now?"

The Shinigami froze for a moment, intimidated by the sheer number of _blades_ thrust in her direction—and it took her a moment to calm herself and set up a barrier of water to _somewhat_ soften the damage. It had helped more than she expected—agony coursed through her veins, yes, but the water had somewhat managed to absorb the worst of the attack.

"Uh, well—shit?" That was the best she could offer, and Shizuka hurried to recollect her thoughts—if she kept being surprised by Calla's repeated attacks, she was going to get slain in no time—and she was sure that the girl had to have _some_ kind of weakness.

The command of _Rau'un_ left her throat just as the Virgo—at least, that was what she had gathered from the noticeboard earlier—released yet another surprise, hands rushing to conjure up a saucer of wind that she then flung at the Shinigami.

Shizuka cast her gaze on the fearsome storm that wrapped around her opponent—that would buy her some time. Due to her attack, however, she had no chance of countering her enemy's attack—and she closed her eyes, preparing herself for the worst.

Blinking, she opened her eyes once again—she'd felt the pain where the sliver of air had sliced her face, but it wasn't as acute as she had thought it would be. She _knew_ that this was Azur's ability—the black-haired girl had told her about it—but Azur's magic had seemed stronger than _that._

 _I see,_ she told herself in excitement—she'd manage to uncover the first piece of _useful_ information. _Her attacks aren't as strong as that of the original user._

With that, she had no actual reason to hesitate—she charged forward, sword heaving into yet another position—and a command flew from her mouth. Calla was surely taking damage from Rau'un—and as long as that attack was in place, she would do fine.

"Tatsumaki," she shouted, and the storm transformed itself into a raging spiral of wind and rain, the water turning into tiny projectiles that lashed at the Virgo with an astonishing amount of force. Her sword was still raring to go, however—and she thus unleashed a second order of _Kan Meki_ to satisfy her weapon.

Struggling to hold back a low scream, the girl staggered back as the storm's fury finally let down—and she gasped for air, a thread-thin column of fire shooting at Shizuka in a final attempt to make a counterattack—unfortunately, her defence was far too low now—she was tiring.

The Cetus constellation bounced on her feet, her sword poised in a final attacking stance and pressed to the tip of Calla's head—it seemed that she had no need to worry after all. "Kan Meki," she called once again, a satisfied smile forming on her face.

Lightning coursed through the poor teenager's body—she was utterly defenceless against the storm and the bolt of electricity that writhed its way through her agonised body.

" _And_ I'm done," the older girl congratulated herself, looking at the charred figure on the ground—in any other situation, she would have felt _disgusted_ at herself for doing such things to a fellow schoolmate, but she had no need to worry with the regeneration spells. "Time to move on to the next person."

• • •

A frown crossed the Constellation's face as he searched around for his missing partner—not a trace of her was left behind, and he had no choice but to accept the truth that Shizuka had most probably ditched him when they'd been moving through the forest.

"Vani told us to move together, yet she's gone…" Levi sighed, quite cross with the shoddy manner in which the girl had acted. "She's not out yet, though. Apparently she defeated Calla—I'll make my way there and—"

He was interrupted by a brief rustle of leaves—and he hurried to turn around, barely having the time to defend himself with a makeshift barrier of spikes. The fiery sphere of light—having the abstract structure of a star—collided into the shield with a fizz, breaking through his defences and pushing him back a little.

It hadn't hurt that much, though—he had the spikes to thank for that. Several of them had broken, however, and it would take a few moments for them to regenerate.

"Aw, you managed to block it." The voice was coming from somewhere above him, and he looked up to see a twin-tailed girl hanging upside-down from a tree, her telescope hoisted in front of her and aimed towards him. "That's disappointing—part of me thought I could take you out in one hit."

With that, Nyxia jumped down, trying for another round of the same attack—but he had learnt from the previous time. He held out two of his strongest spikes to shield himself, moving himself to the side for good measure—well, the girl had predicted his attempt to evade the attack, but the meteor-like bullet barely affected him this time.

"Defensive people like you are really a nuisance," she stated, dodging his attacks with ease while talking. "It makes my advantage in Special Attack quite useless—but I guess I can find a way to deal with that. Still…I can't take you seriously."

He sighed—he knew that she was friends with Shizuka, and that his partner would have probably filled her in with how his name had to do with jeans. "Is it because of my name? Or—"

"Nope," she deadpanned—and winced as the next spike skimmed past her shoulder. It didn't cause _pain,_ but damage had already been done—the poison on his little weapons would have worked its way into her system by now. She would weaken—and eventually, she would be defeated. "It's because you kind of look like a stupid pufferfish. Or was it a sea urchin…?"

Unamused by her remark—it seemed like people were intent on pissing him off today—the Cancer zodiac peeled off another spike—this one was longer and deadlier, and if he managed to strike her with it, he could get the fight over with quickly.

"Poison's not going to make me light-headed as you thought," she laughed—her pain was cleverly masked, and she skidded to the side to elude his stab. "I've not being doing _nothing_ for the past five months. Meteor!"

At her command, a golden radiance cloaked her—and she followed up with some abstract order of something called _Anticomplex—_ he had no idea what was going on, but one of the bandages around her left hand lifted, transforming into a glimmering sword that she wielded with little effort.

"Ah, it seems that all my filters have been used up for this battle." She seemed more amused than annoyed at the statement. "No matter. This should be more than sufficient to defeat you~"

Deciding to ignore _whatever_ she had just done—all that had changed was the fact that she was glowing and the fact that she'd switched her telescope for a physical weapon. He grabbed two more spikes—even if they got destroyed, they would regrow in time.

They seemed to be even in swordsmanship, at least—both of them parried for a while, but she was _insanely_ quick—faster than he'd remembered her to be the _previous_ time she had dodged his attacks. Was the glow some form of enchantment?

"Meteor raises my Speed—it also raises my Attack power for a short while," she hummed, as if reading his mind "I use it mainly for the speed boost, though—I'm a long-ranged person. Still, if the situation calls for it…I don't _suck_ at close-ranged combat. I'm just rather limited."

At the end of her sentence, Levi realised something—she'd managed to corner him. Two leftover bandages had weakened his attacks—and the tip of her blade was now at his heart. _When the hell did that happen?_ he wanted to think, but he had no time for _that._

"I could have defeated you forty-three times, but this was the most precise shot," she laughed—and her golden eyes shimmered in the dimness of the forest's canopy—they were filled with a cold, calculating look that were focused on the victory in front of her. "Besides…this is the most painful way."

With that, she plunged the sword straight through his heart—he couldn't even react this time. It pierced straight through, cleaving through flesh easily and emerging on the _opposite_ side of his body.

"And for good measure…Shooting Star," she finished, sticking her tongue out slightly as the telescope reappeared in her hands. "A meteor from the inside would hurt even more, no?"

Blood rained on the ground like petals falling in spring—and a few drops of blood splattered on her face—still, she didn't seem concerned with that. The sword disappeared, and she leaned on the telescope—the poison was starting to take its toll on her.

"You're lucky you get to regenerate," she smiled. "I don't really like you, y'know—if this was an actual battlefield, you'd have died way too easily."


	4. Two

"It looks like Christina's been wiped out already…" Shizuka tilted her head, glancing at the blond-haired female at her feet "Team 1's not doing too well, aren't they? I think most of their team's gone thanks to Team 4."

Only two members of Team 1 were left, and that was Ranmaru and Shie—the rest had been taken out. It wasn't as if their team was faring much better, however—only she and Kat had remained standing after the repeated clashes between their team and Team 3.

"Eh, Shizu—you really _should_ be more careful with where you're standing." A coy voice sent a whisper into her ear, and the girl jumped with a start—she hadn't been expecting anyone to sneak up on her.

Her sword was drawn in an instant—and she jabbed it towards where her opponent had been standing, but the weapon only met with empty space. A groan escaped her mouth—she _did_ hate such sneaky rivals—but she had a feeling she knew who had spoken.

A bullet slammed into the side of her head, and she felt her entire body ring in agony—but it didn't have the white-hot sensation that she'd felt when she'd _first_ experienced Nyxia's Shooting Star. So that would mean that—

"Are you just playing with me?" the shinigami growled, recovering from the surprise attack and aiming a Mizu Shuriken to destroy the ground so that her opponent couldn't get any closer. "You didn't even put any filters on that darned telescope."

"Mm, I don't need to," came the reply—but the girl's actions betrayed her words. A cyan filter appeared on her weapon's lens, about to fire another round of attacks—but Shizuka pressed the blade of her sword to the chamber, as if _daring_ Nyxia to fire.

Nyxia narrowed her eyes—and her golden irises danced playfully as she bounded back, the filter shattering into thin air as she faced her friend. "Not bad, Shizu. You _did_ improve in the five months I was gone."

The shorter girl scoffed, and a command of Denki Noroi slipped from her lips—and her opponent was only _just_ able to contain a muted hiss as rips in the space opened around her, pouring forth waves of electricity that held her in place, persistent in their chase to injure her as much as possible.

"You _bet_ that I've trained. I got lonely without my partner-in-crime, so I spent all the time that I _would_ have pranking others strengthening myself—so, with my current level of power, I think I could beat you now." Shizuka smiled, the thin expression playing across her lips, and her sword rose for yet another attack.

There was silence for a while, and she assumed that Nyxia couldn't reply from the electricity shocking her—but a soft voice soon sounded, and she stopped in her tracks—it was _impossible._ She hadn't seen anyone who was able to stand up to Denki Noroi's paralysing effects before.

"Pretty amazing," the black-haired girl laughed, but her cheerful tone was betrayed by the look in her eyes—as she stood basking in the darkness of a tree's canopy, her mauve eyes appeared more crimson than anything. "But I guess you assumed that I spent my mission doing nothing?"

A gasp left her mouth—she couldn't help it; it was so _sudden_ —as the teenager across her dashed forward, breaking free of the lightning that had kept her in place and reappearing behind her, a golden trail streaking behind her as a bullet pierced into her shoulder.

She looked up to see Nyxia wielding her telescope like they were actual guns—the sniper-like firearm had morphed into two separate pieces, both ends of the telescope aimed straight at her.

"That literally took one second," was all she was able to say, gasping as she bent over from the pain—her basic attack didn't have any filters attached, but it was still painful nonetheless. "What have you been doing…?"

"Not much." Of course the reply would contain sarcasm—her friend's personality was built from jokes and friendly banter that was never serious. "These five months just taught me that I have to be of utmost alertness in every battle. One slip-up and it'll result in death."

Nyxia laughed—this was unsettling; it was cold and harsh and just _different_ from her usual laughs—and fired a round of bullets at her. She dodged—it was a natural reaction, but the girl must have been expecting that, because she still felt a dull ache burn away at her stomach.

 _Looks like I'll have to be serious with her._ The Shinigami stood back up, sword glinting in the afternoon sun—and she called for another command. "Ran'un!"

Her blade seemed to glow with an otherworldly energy, and the storm clouds gathering above her opponent soon produced a gust of wind so strong that it soon twisted into a ruthless tornado, lashing out at the younger girl's arms and biting deep lacerations onto her skin.

Taking advantage of the distraction—Nyxia was too busy trying to _see_ in the thunderstorm she'd created—Shizuka copied the teenager's little trick, making a swift circle to get behind the girl and out of her view before raising her sword to stab her opponent.

She was aiming for her heart, but she'd forgotten that the thunderstorm made her opponent's figure blurry and hard to see—and she thus ended up piercing through an area only centimetres away from the vital organ. It would do the trick, however—the girl would be stunned by the pain, and she could take that chance to aim once more.

"Cocky, eh? Remember that while you've spent more time here, I've spent more time actually fighting." Shizuka raised an eyebrow—and with a simple swish of her weapon, the hurricane dissipated into the air, revealing the battered girl's form in all its glory.

 _How is she still standing from such an attack…?_ Deciding to push that matter aside, she positioned her sword to attack again, but she was interrupted by a harsh breath and an unexpected reaction.

Nyxia spun around, her heel making a forceful pivot so that she was facing her directly—and her eyes were wide and glassy as she evaded the attack.

"What the—" Shizuka bit her lip as she leapt forward, her blade twisting and turning in a series of complicated endeavours, but the girl seemed to dodge each one almost _unconsciously._ "I know you've activated Meteor and that makes you faster, but this is—"

"Not again," the twin-tailed teenager stammered out—and she raised her telescope, the firearm glowing and she was trapped all of a sudden—it was as if her limbs were locked in place, and she was unable to move no matter how she commanded her body. "Don't do this to me again—"

She was relieved to be released from her opponent's grasp, but Nyxia followed up with a cannon of star-shaped energy that rocketed against her head, blowing her several feet back and making her brain spin from the sheer impact. "Nyx, what—"

"Stop it!" the girl shouted, and she looked even more terrified than her senior despite the fact that she'd just turned the tables—and her hands shook as she fired round after round of Shooting Stars. "I'll—I'll crush you so that you can't touch me again. I'll kill you—I'll destroy you so absolutely just as I did with that damned pufferfish boy!"

The girl only stopped when she saw that her friend was unconscious, and a heavy feeling—it had to be Levi's poison from two hours earlier—replaced the adrenaline in her veins, and the telescope in her arms disappeared into space as she slumped to the ground.

"I'm sorry," she muttered to her friend in a low tone—the toxins had taken a huge toll on her body, and she'd known when she'd ran into Shizuka that the battle would be her last. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm _sorry—"_

 _Calm the hell down,_ her mind told her, and she pressed her back against a tree for support as her eyes started to slip close, dragging her down into a peaceful realm of unconsciousness, but a final sentence managed to escape her lips as her mouth curved up into a smile.

"That was dangerous," she chided herself. "It nearly slipped out, didn't it?"

• • •

"Not so strong, are you?"

Alpha skidded forward, throwing a casual fireball in Ranmaru's direction—and the sphere of molten lava seared through the older boy's sleeve and left a charred mark on his elbow. "Aren't you the leader of Team 1? Why are you so weak?"

"We may not be the strongest team, but we have the most experience—and we're the wisest." A smirk flitted across the teenager's face, and a blue bolt of magic rose from his swords and headed straight for her heart. "I, for one, am especially specialised towards other's emotions and pain."

The girl halted her tirade, a hand flying to her chest in an attempt to halt the agony flying through her body—but it was useless. There wasn't even a wound, but it felt like her entire body was burning up—and that was odd because she _wielded_ flames.

In a frantic effort to put out the imaginary fire, she summoned a jet of water, the liquid wrapping in tendrils around her body—but it still didn't work, and she didn't understand _why._

"My blades attack only your sense of pain, but…" Scalds steadily imprinted themselves in her skin, and she felt the white-hot terror growing each second—just how much had she underestimated Ranmaru? "I can make that metaphorical feeling all too real. And with that; while you're distracted by this…"

He brandished one of his swords, as if _mocking_ her for not being worthy of both—and with a movement too fast for her eye to catch, he'd stabbed the titanium structure straight through her head. "I can inflict damage as per normal."

It was all she could do _not_ to scream—and she forced a smile. "The time's nearly up, though." Her laugh sounded more like a choke. "You're the only remaining member of your team, and you're about to drop from having fought so much—while the other teams have at least one healthy member left. Team 4, however, has two members left—Sora and Lillian."

As though as she had incurred it, the speaker crackled to life, a siren signalling the end of the game— _"All active members, please stop. The battle has come to an end, and Team 4 has been proclaimed the winner."_

• • •

"It's the first day of school…" Shizuka groaned as she stepped into the classroom, throwing her bag on the nearest table she could find and slumping down in the seat. "I'm not prepared at all for this. My life has ended."

She brightened as she saw her friend walk past, and called out to the twin-tailed girl to join her in wallowing in utter misery. "Aye, Nyxia! Sit next to me!"

"I'm not as short as you are," the girl deadpanned—but she slid into a seat in the second row, unpacking her things for school while speaking. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you'll be distracted if I sit next to you, so you should just focus on your studies."

Ranmaru—he was sitting next to the girl—raised an eyebrow in concern, and he leant down to whisper into the shorter girl's ear. "Are you alright, Nyxia? You don't seem like your usual self today. You seem kind of depressed—what happened?"

"N—Nothing!" the teenager protested, and she lifted her nonchalant gaze to meet the boy's worried expression. "Just salty that I lost to the pufferfish's _poison_ in yesterday's battle of all things—I wouldn't mind having been taken down in an actual fight."

The nickname brought a memory to the front of Shizuka's mind, and she tilted her head at the girl. "That reminds me—what the hell happened during our fight? All I did was poke you with my sword and you just went ballistic on me."

"My mission," the girl shrugged. "I was still on edge—it was my first day back, and I assumed that you were an enemy. That's all—sorry if I scared you."

She wanted to speak again, but the teacher had entered by then and she had no choice but to shut up. She was more focused on how the older woman seemed to want to torture them with two hours of magic chemistry followed by yet another hour of _math._

And she hated math to its very core—if it was an opponent, she'd have torn it to pieces long ago.

"You'll be sorted in the lab according to your name—it's on that list there," the adult pointed out. "Now, I expect all of you to be quiet and orderly when moving to different locations—but you have to be punctual, of course. Now, let's go."

• • •

To say that it was pure chaos was an understatement.

Levi didn't know _what_ was going on—if it was just simple theory, he would be able to understand that, but the younger students in the class were doing whatever they wanted to, and the worksheet had been torn to shreds ages ago.

Unsure, he approached Nyxia—she was the only one at the bench who was even paying attention to what she was doing, and she seemed to _know_ what was happening, so that settled it. "Do you know what we're supposed to do?"

"I'll take care of the experiment," she snapped back, and the firmness in her tone made him startle—he had heard from Shizuka that the girl was more than friendly—albeit sarcastic at times, but that was natural of most people—but she seemed to have taken some sort of dislike to him.

"I actually _do_ want to learn," he countered. "What did I ever do to you?"

The black-haired girl bit back a sharper reply. "Nothing," she pronounced, exasperated—and she lifted a lump of ashes that _used_ to be his worksheet into the air, snapping her fingers and reverting it back to its original form. "Here—the instructions are all stated. Do whatever you want, but leave me alone before I set you on fire—or something. I'm too short."

He sighed, about to turn back and do his own work—but a sighed statement from the girl next to him made him pause for just a moment.

"I really hate you, y'know?"

• • •

 **/lowkey whisper**

 **if i could kill exams**

 **i'd shooting star it into nothingness**


	5. Three

Shizuka awoke to the—it was odd, but she found it pleasant—sound of rustling paper next to her year, and she groaned, opening her eyes and meeting with the sight of a sheet of said material being pressed into her face.

"If you're going to be my roommate, then be more punctual, Shizu." Nyxia let the paper slip through her fingers, watching as the older girl grabbed hold of the parchment to study it. "Your timetable. Your first class starts in half an hour, so you might want to hurry."

"The timetables already arrived?" Trying to ease the sleepiness from her eyes, the teenager stared at the tiny printing on the schedule. "Oh, I'm in Class 3 for Mathematics and Sciences again—at least it isn't very stressful. I can slack. Average classes for the rest…do I share any classes with you?"

Blinking, the raven-haired Zodiac withdrew her own piece of paper. "No academic classes," she replied with a grin. "I got lifted to Class 2 for Mathematics and Sciences and dropped to 2 for Humanities, so you _hopefully_ won't get too distracted. Don't doodle too much, though—take actual notes."

"No," Shizuka bit back. "It's boring. Are there any other classes?"

Suppressing an amused laugh, her roommate went back to inspecting her timetable. "We share classes for magic level, application, weapons handling and Physical Education."

"That's most of the other classes," the girl noted. "Well, that's four classes that I can annoy the hell out you in."

"Shizu, I can and will literally deactivate the regeneration spells just to kill you." Though she knew it was just a threat, the playful tone was enough catch the older Constellation off guard for just a moment, and Nyxia simply laughed at her reaction. "Just go to your first class, won't you?"

She sighed, seeing a Mathematics block at the top of her schedule—and she could already tell that her first class was already going to be hell.

• • •

"Magic classes!" Shizuka hadn't been following the schedule too much—but she _did_ know that she shared a class with Shinju for magic level, and the white-haired girl was staring at her timetable and she supposed that she could be trusted.

"Finally," the black-haired girl agreed, closing her notebook—she was glad that she was seated next to a girl who had the same sentiments as her about classes, and they had both agreed to let each other draw in peace while the Humanities teacher droned on. Worrying about grades would come later.

Somewhere behind them, Levi didn't manage to hold back his question. "Are magic classes seriously all you two think about?"

"You!" Shinju barked in a half-yell, her scythe appearing in her hands and freezing the boy in his place. "You are not allowed to speak, you rotten—uh, overachiever dude! No one who's in Class 1 for all the academics gets to speak. _No one."_

Shizuka doubled over in laughter, deciding to join and add some fuel to the much-welcomed fire. "I don't get how people do the weird thing," she frowned. "I mean, the managing-not-to-fall-asleep-or-draw-during-class thing. You're not human."

"I don't think that's a way to address anyone by," the taller teenager deadpanned. "Just unfreeze me and let me go to my next class."

The Cetus Constellation clapped her hands together, her eyes lighting up as if she had come to a sudden realisation. "I knew everyone had to have a drawback," she declared. "You're in class 3 for magic level. That alone makes me feel much better."

"Guys, you _do_ know that you're not going to get any good rooms in the training gymnasium if you continue talking here, right? You're already late for your next class." Hunter—Shizuka hadn't really seen him around before, but she'd heard that he was the Libra zodiac—raised an eyebrow at them, his bag slung over his shoulder as he exited the classroom.

Shinju drew her lips together into a tight line. "I'll kill you another time, then," she pouted. "We're both fast, right? Maybe we can get a room in time."

The effects of her soul lock wore off as the scythe disappeared, and the two girls were gone even before Levi could even talk again.

• • •

"Can we share this training room with you?"

Calla jumped as Shizuka hovered near to her, hands clasped together in a sort of begging position—and the sphere of indigo energy in her hand died down as she turned to answer. "Only if you're willing to be cramped," she shrugged. "I'm already sharing with Nyxia."

As if on cue, the Leo Zodiac walked back in, a bottle of water in her hands. Shinju blinked at the sight of another one of her teammates—while she had spoken with the older girl before, she hadn't really gotten to know anything about her.

Shizuka slung an arm around her friend's shoulder, about to open her mouth to speak—but Nyxia interrupted her. "Yes, Shizu," she stated, "I'll use Spiral. It'll only expand this room by a little, though."

Her hands lit up in a pink glow, and the walls of the room started to recede—and that gave them a bit more space to practice. The Constellation nodded at her friend in thanks, moving to a corner of the room to practice and inviting Shinju to join her.

The room was silent for a few minutes—everyone seemed to be trying and improving the amount of innate energy within their bodies—but Shinju was the one who broke the silence. "What's the purpose of this class if there isn't a teacher?"

Calla inclined her head to the door. "There _is_ an instructor," she explained. "For the most part, instructors are only humans with a deep understanding of Zodiacs and Constellations, so this magic class is mostly for practice. You're free to consult them if you want."

The Gemini constellation nodded, jumping up and reaching into her coat pocket—then, she whipped out a cat charm, her oversized scythe appearing in her hands as she landed.

"What are you—" Shizuka was cut off as a mass of pitch-black matter started gathering below the razor-sharp tip of her friend's weapon, spreading out as the mass grew in size and heading towards everyone. "Torodoki!"

The air seemed to moisten and clump around her sword, and the column of water that shot out was barely enough to defend herself from the shadowy figures that had emerged. "Shinju, what the hell are you even trying to do? This is a training room!"

"But it's the only way to improve my magic level!" She looked as if she wanted to wave her arms around for added effect, but the effects of Soul Lock had her trapped in place. "I control souls, and I have to strengthen myself by summoning more and more of them from Alyce."

"That's still no reason to attack us," Calla groaned, summoning a shield of flames that seared at the souls' edges. "Can you get any more childish?"

"You lost to Kat because your control wasn't good enough," Nyxia tried to sum up, limbs moving forward as an attack of Meteor helped her to dash past her so-called opponent's minions. "Combined with the data I have on you, you prefer to stick to these kind of attacks, right?"

Shinju was distracted by a moment—how was she _behind_ her?—and tried to order more souls to come out, but her balance was lost as she turned, and her feet met with bare air as she fell to the ground, her scythe's underlings letting out a chorus of unhappy screams before being sucked back into the weapon.

"Once one looks past your psychopathic style…" A file rested between the girl's fingers, and the younger girl _badly_ wanted to know where she got all her data from. "You always use the same patterns and barricades for your souls, so someone who's been fighting you for a long time would easily figure that out."

Behind them, Shizuka laughed. "You sound as if you're familiar with Shinju, Nyxia—but all you did was read her bio and make her lose her balance."

"She can't move if she summons souls," the girl shrugged, the effects of Meteor wearing off as she sat back down. "A simple trick like that is enough to stall her for a little while."

The girl seemed uninterested in the conversation after that, opting to join Calla in being _serious_ —and a sphere of light formed in her left hand, and she watched as the golden energy shimmered and pulsed in her hand, trying to will every bit of energy inside her to strengthen her attack.

"You didn't bring your weapon," Calla noted—the telescope that her friend had with her was missing from her arms. "Doesn't your power come from the filters in your telescope? How are you even doing that right now…?"

"My weapon is just a medium," the girl replied. "I forge all my filters by myself before channeling them through the telescope to amplify their effects—and I'm trying to work on a new filter now."

The Virgo constellation raised an eyebrow. "You can make new filters?" She didn't seem to be too concerned, though, and the four of them turned back to their individual practices.

• • •

"Please do your goddamn homework, Shizu. I _swear,_ if I see one more doodle of Hitsugaya Toshiro—"

Sticking her tongue out at her younger friend, the Constellation shook her head and gave a disinterested stare at the pile of worksheets that she had collected. "No thank you," she replied with a cheerful grin. "I've already done half of it."

Giving up on persuading her friend, Nyxia crossed over to her side of the room, sliding onto her bed and running her eyes over a red folder. "…just do it before tomorrow, then."

In all truthfulness, Shizuka had been planning to do her Mathematics homework in the half an hour of free time she had before her class tomorrow, but her roommate didn't need to know that. "Let's talk about something more interesting," she suggested. "What happened during your mission?"

The Zodiac paused for a while, yanking the bands away from her hair and letting her hair down—while the action seemed normal, it was clear that she was thinking of a way to phrase her experience. "It wasn't very big," she finally replied. "It was just a _Sporos_ infestation and some higher-ranked humans that tried to run them."

Shuddering at the thought— _Sporos_ were the reason why they even existed; they were manifestations of the negatives of every bit of the world, and humans sometimes tried to use them to catch a stray Constellation or Zodiac—the teenager tilted her head. "For five months?"

"It was huge," her friend supplemented. "I think these _Sporos_ were born from Gemini, Leo and Libra. I had to enlist the help of other Constellations I found in order to finish them off."

"New Constellations?" She perked up at that. "Have you invited them to Star Patron?" Grinning at the nod she'd received in confirmation— _a new team member!_ —she continued on. "Nyxia, was that why you were so panicked when I stabbed you from behind?"

The girl's grip tightened on the hand puppet she had placed on her bedside table—as if thinking that the teru teru bozu would ward off any evil, she bit her lip before responding. "It made me think I was still fighting _Sporos,"_ she responded. "Sorry—that's all."

"You mean you were so worked up when fighting them?" Her expression elicited a laugh from the younger girl, but she was serious—there had to be something more than just fighting these monsters for five months, right? _She'd_ been brought to one of those infestations before— and it had only lasted for a week.

"Anyway, you'd better finish up your homework and sleep soon." Closing the file, Nyxia flung the object across the room—and it landed next to her bag with a soft thud. "We have tag-team battles tomorrow."

Nodding, Shizuka watched as the girl rolled to her side and fiddled with the light switch so that she could sleep in peace—she wanted to sneak over and take a look at one of those files that her roommate always kept with her, but Nyxia wasn't one to fall asleep so soon.

Sighing, she turned back to her English homework—she supposed that for now, she could be entertained with the prospect of the new students.


	6. Four

"OK, guys, time to start the tag battles." The instructor's words elicited a round of excited chatter from her students, but a sharp blow of her whistle shut them all up once again. "Listen to the rules."

"One, _make sure_ the regeneration spells are active on whatever opponents you're facing. You can never be too careful." She took a breath before continuing. "Two, violence is tolerated, but don't go too overboard with it." Sneaking a pointed glance at Nyxia and Shinju, she shook her head. "Three, you're allowed to use any part of the terrain to your advantage. I suppose that's all. Assemble into your teams."

Before the teenagers could rush to their best friends, Vani—she was, after all, the president of the batch of students—let out a shout. "Don't choose anyone from the same team," she commanded. "The point here is to mingle around and to learn how to work with anyone."

Shizuka groaned, unhappy that she wasn't allowed to pester Levi or stir up trouble with Azur, but she didn't let that stop her from finding a teammate. Shinju shared the same mischievous mindset as her—they would get along just fine.

She could see the other teams starting to form. Hunter had chosen to go with Nyxia's team leader; Levi and Calla made an unusual pair, and Ranmaru and Nyxia were already discussing strategies.

"Hey, Shizu—you've been here longer than me, right?" Shinju lowered her voice into a tiny whisper, the two girls leaning down to minimise the risks of eavesdropping. "Which teams should we look out for?"

The older girl tilted her head to ponder the question, glancing around her to inspect the groups of two around them. "I would say Nika and Sora. They would make a good stealth duo, so we have to be prepared," she hummed. "There's also Moonlight. She hits hard with her ability but suffers afterwards, and she has Kat—and she's good at stamina."

"I don't know anything about Ranmaru, but Nyxia managed to pull that weird stunt with me yesterday." The Gemini Zodiac scrunched up her nose as she looked back at the memory in disgust. "So she's got to be pretty strong, right?"

Shizuka shrugged. "Ranmaru is better off as a support member," she noted. "So they have a team with both offence and defence. You can take care of Ranmaru to rid Nyxia of that help, and I've sparred with her a lot."

"Got it!" her junior chirped, and they both stumbled forward as their instructor issued the command to start. "Shit."

• • •

The older girl fumbled with her weapon as she heard the sound of footsteps coming, making haste to prod Shinju in the back before shooting a jet of compressed water towards the direction.

Calla countered with a grumbled spell and a shield of liquid that she recognised as Vani's—and she signalled to her partner for them to switch positions. "I'll take Levi on," she drawled. "Deal with Calla—we would have better knowledge of our own teammates!"

With that, Shinju leapt onto the branches of a nearby tree, her scythe materialising in her hands and shooting forth a small army of shadowy figures that leapt forward at once, eager to devour their master's opponent.

"Why the hell—" Shizuka shook her head, deciding not to question the absurdity of her partner's moves—and shot two rounds of Mizu Shuriken at Levi, hoping that would be sufficient to distract him.

"Eh, you're not bad, pufferfish." The black-haired girl narrowed her eyes as she studied the grey spikes that he had used to block her attack. They seemed sturdy enough—still, Mizu Shuriken wasn't that strong of an attack. "But if Nyx could defeat you, it shouldn't be too hard."

Levi simply dodged a misaimed Hasami Are—she had no idea how he could dodge such a big tornado, but he was faster than any other person she'd fought. "You're wrong, then." One of his spikes lodged itself at the side of her neck, and she winced as she saw crimson flowing down her skin. "We're weak and strong against different people."

Grunting, she destroyed the spike before her with three shuriken and lunged at the older boy, but she was too slow. Even if it was just by a little, her advantage in speed was lost, and she had to find other means to counter her opponent.

"Guess I underestimated you, then." She felt unsteady from the toxins that had already worked their way into her system, and drove her sword into the air. "Ran'un, confine him so he can't escape!"

The teenager tensed up as he heard the command, swivelling and preparing to run—but the attack had taken him by surprise this time. A circle of storm clouds formed around him, the gales and acid-like rain blasting around him making it almost impossible to escape.

 _I'm slowly going to take damage from this, and Shizuka can attack now. I have to think of a way to—_ he was cut off by the girl summoned a sphere of electricity in her hands, shooting the bolt of lightning towards him with little remorse and deadly accuracy.

He grunted at the pain, but the electricity had weakened the barrier by a little—and jumping at the opportunity, he peeled off two long spikes from his heels and shoved them into his cage with as much force as he could.

"You just gave me a power-up," he noted, breaking free from his prison and holding up a spike that glimmered with traces of currents running through the structure. "I guess I was right after all."

He was cut off by two blasts hitting the both of them. A wave of tiny green lights washed over Shizuka, rejuvenating her body and making her feel better than she had before, and a saucer of wind left a mark on the boy's cheek.

"Alyce: barricade!" Shinju commanded her scythe to release a screen of her precious souls, watching as they blocked their enemies' routes and gesturing at her to run. "They can only hold for five seconds after I move, so—" she jumped off the tree she'd been on the whole time, "—hurry up!"

• • •

Sighing, the younger girl leant on her scythe for support as she glanced behind them. "I think we lost them," she concluded, watching as her partner shot her a questioning look. "You were going to be defeated by Levi with that poison in your body. I managed to reflect some of Hunter's healing powers to you, but it'll take a much longer time to settle in."

The black-haired girl bowed her head in embarrassment. "That was a logical choice, then," she breathed. "Thanks for the help—and should we check the statuses of the teams?"

Shinju fidgeted with a button on her wristband, causing a translucent screen to pop up in front of them. "Some teams got wiped out," she commented. "Christina and Gemma already got beaten, and even the powerhouse team of Moonlight and Katlin got their asses beat by—"

"—Nika and Sora." Shizuka completed the statement, brown eyes unamused by the thought. "If we're ambushed, it's going to be trouble."

The Zodiac shrugged, playing with a stray soul that had wrapped itself around her neck. "Should we split up?" she suggested, looking up at her senior with determination in her crimson eyes. "I feel that we can cover more distance that way."

A blade cut them off, the katana barely missing Shinju's throat by inches, and it scared both of them that they didn't know who the weapon belonged to in the first place. While the shorter girl didn't recognise the voice that followed, Shizuka tensed up and dragged her partner away.

"OK, I did not expect Ranmaru to attack," the Shinigami hissed, drawing her own sword and using it to counter the next strike. "It was that obvious that Nyxia was going to be attack, so what's happening? _Where_ is she?"

"I bet you didn't expect me to go on the offensive, right?" The older boy jumped back to avoid a shuriken. "Nyxia's helping out with the support."

Shinju yelped as the tree she was reaching for disappeared just as she climbed up, the scenery twisting so that they were no longer in a forest—instead, a rectangular box filled with bright colours surrounded them, the only ledges visible being ones on the other side of the container.

The missing girl then appeared in front of them, sitting cross-legged on the highest ledge with magic rippling across the surfaces of the lower surfaces.

"I told you we should have switched support and attack," she laughed. Her telescope wasn't present; rather, she hugged the teru teru bozu to her chest as she watched Shizuka and Ranmaru stare at each other. "I'll make sure Shinju does nothing to get you."

"When could Nyxia do this?" the Shinigami asked, feeling a sting at her side as Ranmaru's fingers pulsed with energy. "I've sparred with her before and she's never been able to do any of this."

"When my doll isn't in its telescope form, the strength of my non-combat attacks are strengthened and warped to fit my needs—just like space and matter." She raised an eyebrow at the battle. "I can't attack or move much, though. That's why I'm stuck here."

A grin spread across Shinju's face. "I don't care whether your ability has changed, but that means you're just a sitting duck, right?" She flew across the room, Alyce pointed straight towards the girl's throat, but her opponent made no move to escape.

Then, the Gemini faltered halfway, trying to clutch at her head and throat at the same time and stumbling forward. A shimmering wall broke through the ground's surface, causing the girl to slam through it and fall downwards.

"Thanks to not wasting my power, Spiral works even better in this room." A bored smile decorated Nyxia's expression, and she jumped down from her makeshift throne. "Well, I guess I should try and join."

Ranmaru turned his focus back to the battle in front of him. "Sensory link," he commanded, and two loops of mist wrapped themselves around their opponent's wrist—Shizuka then felt a stabbing pain in her head and tightness in her throat, stumbling backwards and looking around—she hadn't been hit yet!

"I'll deal with Nyxia later!" Shinju's eyes widened, realising just how strong Ranmaru was. "I'll help back you up, Shizu—"

She was stopped as the other girl appeared in front of her, fingertips brushing against her forehead and leaving a small mark stamped into her skin.

"Too late," Ranmaru noted, holding off Shizuka with one of his katanas while aiming the other at the small girl. "Once you've got that, whatever next attack that hits you can't be dodged. With that…" With two simultaneous flicks of his wrist, he knocked his opponent to the side and shot a bolt of energy towards the Zodiac. "Aura control—hallucination!"

Shinju whimpered, dropping two her knees and clutching at her head as Nyxia stared down at her. "She's done for, Ranmaru." Her head tilted as her clutch tightened around the doll. "Do I use another curse on her?"

At his command of _go ahead,_ the twin-tailed teenager walked forward, tapping the child in the same spot and watching with no regret as the agony in her eyes increased.

The girl was doubled over on the floor, a murky aura glowing around her as she tried to suppress small screams as Nyxia walked away, returning to her seat on the ledge and watching the scene with interest.

"Shit." Shizuka got up, charging at her enemy and feeling a sharp burn at the back of her head. "It's been a long time since someone could match me in terms of sword fighting."

"That's really the only reason why we changed tactics for this battle," Ranmaru shrugged, spinning his swords and preparing for another attack. "I may not be able to incapacitate two opponents at once, but now that we can fight—"

"I'm sure Shinju will break through whatever you're throwing at her."

Ranmaru simply smiled back at her. "Why do you think Nyxia's not doing anything to support me right now?"


	7. Five

"One, two, three..." The twin-tailed girl scrunched her eyes shut in concentration and counted, beads of cold sweat running down her face as the bandages around her wrists began to be stained with an ugly shade of purple.

Before her, Shinju trembled, muttering dazed words in a frenzied manner and tightened her grip around Alyce. She made no move to attack, however—she was much too preoccupied with dealing with the issue at hand.

"Nyxia's curses and my aura links have enabled her to do this to Shinju." Ranmaru muttered. "But I only have a bit of time to defeat you. My partner suffers damage for every curse she uses, and we would be at a serious disadvantage if her mental fortitude can't keep up."

Shizuka ignored him, raising her sword and slashing at him in a whirlwind of movements and electricity. She panted—she'd managed to land at least a few hits, but it wasn't enough to take him out. _That means that I just have to draw the battle out,_ she thought, and dodged the next series of attacks.

"Four," Nyxia called, and neither Shizuka nor her incapacitated partner knew why she was even counting in the first place. "Five—Ranmaru, you have a bit over five minutes to finish this."

"Spacial shift complete," she then breathed, reaching over and using her finger draw a strange character in front of Shinju. "Release."

She then crawled back to her safe space, watching as the murky substance devoured the once white bandages over her arms, and she just barely managed to conjure another wall for Shizuka to run into.

 _Good. Nyx's already losing her focus._ A smirk appeared on the Constellation's face as she ducked under one of the katanas, meeting the other with her own sword and conjuring up a tornado with a yelled command of _Hasami Are._

Ranmaru was looking pretty beaten up by that attack—she could tell that his defence wasn't the best, and she planned to use that to her full advantage. "Torodoki!" she called, watching as the column of water cascaded towards her opponent and grinning as the boy blocked it with both his katanas.

"Weaponless now, aren't you?" She made haste to jump back and call for a command of _Denki no Kodate_ and causing electricity to flood through the teenager's system. "As long as you're paralysed, I can win."

"On the other hand, neither of us can win if we're _both_ paralysed." Shizuka was about to question his statement, but there was no need to do so—her limbs grew heavier all of a sudden, and the stinging pain made it impossible to even move an inch.

 _What good is there in doing this? This will just be pointless and when Nyxia collapses—_ she then saw through his plan; saw Shinju starting to point her scythe at her, and willed herself to shift her arms and aimed a saucer of water at the girl several feet away.

That meant that Ranmaru was now free from the paralysis, but she'd cut down his advantage. Nyxia was too blinded the pain to even attempt dodging, and the simple attack caused her to wince, grabbing hold of her head to stem the agony.

"It's been four and a half minutes," she murmured, watching as both of their partners collapsed to the ground. "She was nearing her limit. You can't make bad injuries real—maybe you should have stayed on support after all."

The box they had been staying in melted away, and she lunged forward, catching Ranmaru by surprise and driving her blade into his stomach and sending a bolt of electricity through him.

She then jumped back, sheathing her bloodstained blade and looking at the three lifeless figures around her. "They might have won if they had switched their attack and support," she sighed. "Still, that was a lucky break."

• • •

"Check who's left," Lillian nudged, and Shie dragged up a screen that both of them looked at in interest. "It looks like Ranmaru and Nyxia finally got taken out, then."

The shorter girl laughed. "It would be annoying to run into them—they took out two or three teams before they got defeated." A frown crossed her face. "But there's still the problem of Sora and Nika. With the other concerning teams eliminated, they're the only powerhouse left."

A voice interrupted Shie, a swift kick delivered out of nowhere and causing the both of them to stumble back. "Were you talking about us?"

Nika materialised out of the shadows, stretching out her hands and producing a wave of scythe-like projectiles that attacked the both of them with great eagerness—and the attack was just barely countered by a shot from one of Lillian's guns.

"Shadow manipulation," the girl grunted, watching as her opponent's hand became a misty substance and allowed the bullet to phase through with hardly any damage dealt. "She's of the defensive type, so I'll go up against her. You take Sora."

Her partner nodded, catching sight of the airborne girl a few feet away and launching towards her target with two daggers in her hands.

 _Let's see._ Lillian's ability made a mental checklist in her head. _She excels in defence and dodging attacks, but her attacks aren't that strong. Physical attacks do nothing if she's focused, which means that—_

The ground around them cracked and twisted, causing chunks of rocks to be ripped from the earth and thrown at her opponent. Nika just raised her eyebrows, unimpressed by the feat—and her limbs faded into a screen of shadows once again. "That won't work on me."

"I know," the taller girl mumbled in annoyance, and she forced her triumphant smirk down as she raised her gun to fire once again. "But you can't do that trick once you lose focus, can you?"

A gasp of pain left her opponent's throat as the bullet struck her arm, and she sighed in relief as she realised that her reflexes had kicked in to move away. "Not bad," she breathed, raising her sword and turning it into a whiplike structure that shot at her with near-impossible force.

The Capricorn winced as the weapon was too fast—it cut into her shoulder and almost made her drop her pistol from the slight burn tearing through her flesh. She _had_ succeeded in making Nika's focus waver, however, and that was all that mattered.

"Can you avoid this, then?" She raised both guns and shot a quick round of bullets at the girl, giving her no time to dematerialise into shadow and shooting pieces of earth towards her once again.

Opposite her, the Constellation hoisted her shield, closing her eyes and thrusting the heavy structure in front of her. The bullets bounced off easily, not even coming close to scratching the surface—but the shield was too small, and she was pelted by a large fragment of rock instead.

"Ow—goddammit!" the younger girl yelped, and she made haste to switch her shield for the sword. Lillian's eyes widened as they met with the sight of the blade's tip—she'd made a mistake. She froze in her tracks; not because she was scared, but because she _couldn't._ Nika had managed to use that darned ability to somehow freeze her.

 _Right. I was too busy focusing on her ability to turn parts of her body to shadow._ She grunted as she was freed from the metaphorical prison, scrambling to summon a sheet of rock to counter the darkness-cloaked blade heading her way.

Her fragile shield broke easily, however, and she stumbled as the sword sliced into her chest, missing her heart by mere inches.

Before Nika could try anything else, she fired three shots at the girl's hand—and all she could think of was disarming her enemy before doing anything else. Sure enough, the sword clattered to the floor, and she prepared to launch another barrage of rocks to defeat her opponent.

The girl, however, raised her shield once again, blocking whatever she could with the piece of metal and diving forward with an outstretched hand. It seemed that her focus was starting to return—the tips of her fingers had elongated into semi-solid claws.

Though the attack didn't do much, it _did_ stun Lillian into staying still and not being able to retaliate. Her opponent grinned, and the shadows of the both of them merged with that of a nearby tree, darkness wrapping around her fallen weapon and making it fly back into her hand.

All that she could feel next was the numbing thrust of a sword through her stomach and darkness meeting her as she fell.

• • •

"Alright, guys—it's time for our annual campfire! Well, one of them." Nyxia paused to try and remember what she was supposed to say. "Gather round. It doesn't matter where you're sitting; just try not to wander off, OK?"

Christina glanced at the younger girl, watching as she perched herself on top of a rock to give her commands. "Who even decided to put you in charge?"

"But you did it last year," the Zodiac protested. "Besides, the principal stated that one of the most experienced students has to be in charge, and I came in three months after you did—it's the first time I've done this, anyway."

"Ignoring that, use this campfire as a bonding experience," the twin-tailed girl continued. "The marshmallows and everything are with Ranmaru, so feel free to mob him. Chaos is allowed and encouraged, but just don't destroy or set the forest on fire. That's all—I'll call you back when the next segment's going to begin!"

Her former partner glared at her, torn between running away from the food he was managing or just stopping everyone with his ability. "Nyxia, chaos was _never_ allowed—be patient and line up for your food!"

The shorter female just hopped down from her rock and shrugged, a grin spreading over her face as she tapped on Calla's shoulder to tell her to help her get some marshmallows.

Eventually, the black-haired boy managed to escape the crowd with his share of food in hand, rushing over to join Nyxia and Christina by the fire before any of the less experienced students could try and barge in. "This brings back memories, doesn't it? We didn't have anything like this when we first came."

"That's because there were _three_ of us, you idiot." Christina rolled her eyes, stuffing a marshmallow into her mouth as she tried to speak. "Besides, you were still as rash back then, and I'm pretty sure Nyxia was terrified of you when you dragged her here. Right?"

The black-haired teenager looked up from her food. "I mean, Ranmaru was a pretty big idiot..." she trailed off to bite into another marshmallow. "And this marshmallow tastes nice."

 _How does Team 3 even function with her as a strategist...?_ The Zodiac was content to be left to her own devices, and the both of them watched as she left the group and went over to chat with Shizuka. _She's lazy at times, but her wit_ is _sharp._

They looked over to where she was talking with her teammates, an angry Calla shaking her violently for some abstract reason and Shinju trying to join in by shaking Calla back. Adan just laughed at the whole situation, and Nika was cheering the Gemini on.

"You know the Principal arranged for us to meet her tomorrow, right?" Christina tilted her head. "I wonder if it's anything serious."

"Who knows?" the black-haired boy shrugged back. "It may be an outbreak of Sporos —those missions are detestable. It might just be admin work too—either way, we should go and remind Nyxia." He reached out, about to tap the girl on her shoulder, but the Zodiac slipped out of Calla's grasp before he could do so and pulled a megaphone out of her bag.

"Settle down around the fire!" she yelled, and most of the students had to pause in their footsteps and cover their ears before following her orders. "Now, I'd like to have the new students come up front, please."

• • •

 **rip nyxia and shinju 2016 they lived shitty lives but its all daijobu in the end**


	8. Six

apparently i got moonlight's name wrong this whole time it was cosima oops sorry

on a side note this story might just get darker because i feel sad for no reason at all and yea welp

"What do you want?" Azur raised an eyebrow in curiosity, looking at the three seniors in front of her.

"It's a tradition we have for every batch of new students," Nyxia replied, blinking back at her while making sure all the new students—Azur, Katlin, Adan, Levi and Shinju—were lined up in front of her. "Now, Christina, you can explain what's going to happen."

The blonde stepped forward, taking her friend's perch on the rock and clearing her throat. "This started with our second batch," she commented. "But that's irrelevant now. Basically, all you have to do is share a little about yourself—how you got to Star Patron and if you're comfortable, your past. You can try to get seniors to share, but that would come afterwards."

"I have information on everyone here, helping with secretary work and all, but it'd be interesting to hear it coming from your own mouths." Nyxia let out a small yawn, her magenta eyes drifting to the folder in her hands. "We only have some time before we have to go back, so hurry up."

"Right. We'll go in alphabetical order to make this easier for us, so—" the older girl glanced at the black-haired girl on her left. "Adan, you're first."

A small smile crossed the boy's face. "I heard rumours about a school for Constellations and Zodiacs, so I decided to try my luck. Also, I used to work part-time as an idol, and I don't want to share much about my past."

The next Zodiac looked up at Christina with an unamused expression, the apprehension on her face clear to read—but it looked like she wouldn't be able to escape from whatever this was. "I got a recommendation here by Vani," she started. "I found my powers when I was younger because I was stupid and tried to fly like a bird. Is that all?"

Levi shifted as Azur gave him a forceful nudge to speak. "Uh...my ability was inherited from my grandfather. My family was looking for possible schools to send me to, so I ended up here because it seemed like the most logical choice."

"I got a recommendation from Vani too," Katlin yelped, realising it was her turn due to a harmless blade of wind that Azur had flung. "I accidentally burnt people in the past due to my ability, so I decided to come here to learn how to control that."

Shinju flailed as it reached her turn, and she hugged her scythe protectively as she spoke in a light tone. "You see, Alyce sensed some strange kinds of souls in this area," she laughed. "She's drawn to them a lot, and I somehow ended up here."

"Right—I guess we're done. Good job, first years!" Nyxia smiled, kicking Christina off the rock and reclaiming her seat. "We have a bit of free time left, so I guess you can try and pester the seniors into sharing about themselves as well."

Shinju was the first to speak up, jabbing a finger at Shizuka and Nyxia and tilting her head. "What about the both of you?" she asked, a grin peeking through the corners of her mouth. "I need to know everything about my teammate and my good friend."

Shizuka simply laughed at the younger girl's exuberance. "I came here for a similar reason to Katlin's—to learn how to control my powers," she shrugged. "I hurt some people in the past while in a frenzy, so I figured I needed to undergo training."

"I ran away," Nyxia continued. "I was doing OK and staying at an inn in a town, but I ran into a pack of Sporos while in the forest and Ranmaru dragged me back here after he killed them. I ended up here with his recommendation."

Adan opened his mouth, about to ask another senior—but Ranmaru clapped his hands together in an absolute manner. "Time to go back, guys," he uttered in a firm voice. "We have no more time for this, so get some sleep."

Groaning, the students started to stand up, bunching into their teams once more and walking towards the crowded dormitories.

"So you're the team leader now, Adan?" Nyxia tilted her head at the boy walking next to her. "Never thought a new student could make it, so congratulations."

The teenager was about to reply, but the raven-haired Constellation cut him off with a slight smirk forming on her face. "Well, my dorm is in the opposite direction." Her expression looked harmless enough, but it hid a layer of tense danger. "By the way, Adan, you're about as transparent as a piece of glass to me."

Without waiting for him to say anything else, she was gone.

• • •

"Yes, Miss." Upon hearing Ranmaru walk out of the principal's office, the two seniors strode forward, taking a glimpse at the piece of paper in his hand.

"I see...so this Sporos job is too dangerous for any of the new students." A frown tugged at Nyxia's face as she studied the pairings. "And they're sensitive to noise, so two students per area is the maximum we can allow. I guess it makes sense."

Christina was the last to speak. "Vani has to stay behind to ensure that nothing happens to the first-years." Her voice was low as they approached the sound control room. "Well, Ranmaru? You're the vice-chairperson here, so you should be the one making the announcement."

Nodding, the navy-haired student fiddled with a few of the controls before leaning forward to speak. "Good afternoon," he started. "This is your vice-president Ranmaru speaking. A few of you have been assigned to a missioning concerning a Sporos outbreak, so could the following people come to the office? These people are Shizuka Akihana, Alpha Winter and Cosima Terrae."

Only a few minutes passed before the door slid open—the sound room _was_ near the cafeteria, after all—and the three pupils walked in, cautious expressions on their faces as they approached their seniors.

"There's another Sporos attack?" Alpha's eyes widened at Ranmaru. "Didn't the last one just come a week ago? Where is it this time?"

"Don't get all flustered," the older boy grunted, and opened up his laptop. "There are three areas that have been infested—Divum, Inpes and Anima. Since these type of Sporos are born from insults towards others, they're sensitive to noise, and thus, we're breaking into three groups of two to cover each city."

Christina glanced at her juniors with a scrutinising eye. "I have decided on the groupings," she muttered. "Ranmaru and Alpha will be going to Inpes. Nyxia and Shizuka will take on Divum, and Moonlight and I will fight the Sporos in Anima. Are there any complaints?"

Nyxia raised her hand. "Could we take Anima instead?" she asked. "I've been on more missions there, so I would be more familiar with the area. Besides, it's near where I used to live."

"I guess it _would_ be fine." The blond-haired teenager narrowed her eyes in thought. "We have to leave as soon as possible, so get your things ready by tonight. The Principal's helicopter will fly us to Patet, where we'll leave for our respective areas."

"Right!"

• • •

"So we're in Divum." The teenager looked at her partner with a disinterested look, blue eyes faraway and clearly on some other unrelated topic. "So, do you have any plan? I assumed you would—since you were the one who thought of the groupings."

Scowling a little at Cosima's tone, the Constellation looked down at the ground. "I just thought our abilities would mix well together," she muttered. "In Divum, there's a lot of open land and wilderness, so Nyxia made a good choice. You can use your powers freely, and I can summon wild animals to trap the Sporos in place and help out."

"I see." The younger girl went silent once again, and the two of them continued their stroll until a crashing noise alerted them to their mission.

"It's coming from that direction—you're faster, so go ahead and attack. I'll support you from the back and call for support." Cosima nodded, taking off towards the source of the sound with two knives in hand.

Now alone, the blonde girl pressed her fingers to her lips, letting out a shrill whisper that sent a pack of wolves running towards her, surrounding her and letting out affectionate growls as they waited for their new master's commands.

She knelt down, making sure to brush her fingers against their heaving sides—she hadn't done it in a long while, but enchantment seemed necessary for this mission. "I need you to do me a favour," she murmured. "Could you surround those monsters in town for me and make sure they don't get anywhere nasty?"

Barking, the animals made soft noises of assent before disappearing off to fulfil their orders, and the blonde-haired girl withdrew her bow, ready to run after her partner and help out, but a thrashing sound stopped her from doing just so.

Her eyes widened as she sensed a huge prescence behind her, and she turned around to see three Sporos, their size exceptionally large and intimidating compared to the others of their kind.

 _Oh shit._ She trusted Cosima's defence, but the younger girl's ability would force her to take some damage in the end—and she was more of a supporting force than a fighter.

"The only thing I can do is make others fight for me, then." Three whistles broke into the air, and she fired as many arrows as she could in five seconds, hoping to keep the beasts at bey before her assistance came to help her.

• • •

"You live near here?" Shizuka was intrigued by her friend's previous statement, and despite the tenseness that was _supposed_ to have filled the air, they were more than confident for their upcoming fight. "Anima's a pretty closed-off area, and I would have expected you to live in a bigger city like Procedo or something."

Nyxia just laughed. "I _used to_ live _near_ Anima," she corrected. "I was in Somnum, but Procedo put it under protection a while back due to some dangerous murderer going on a rampage a while back. I tried to visit once, but they wouldn't let any visitors in."

The raven-haired girl sighed. "Right," she replied. "Anyway, we better take care of whatever's coming our way—what the actual _hell_ are those?"

"Insult-borne Sporos," her friend uttered in a deadpan voice. "You've only faced off ones that were created from guilt an anger, right? Well, these are more sensitive to every movement we make, so we have to be careful."

Shizuka gulped. "There are _much_ more than we predicted," she whispered, lowering her voice so that she wouldn't alert their enemies. "What are we even going to do? Both of us are more suited for fighting, and both our defence stats are pretty useless."

"The town hall should have more soldiers protecting it," her partner urged. "The principal has notified them of us, so they'll let us in to plan before going out. Besides, they have half-soundproof walls."

Nodding, the both of them made a mad dash for the large building—the fact that the path had so many turns irked the Cetus Constellation, but there was nothing she could do about it—with Shizuka blasting columns of water to keep away the monsters as long as she could and Nyxia leading the way.

Finally, they dove inside the structure, and Nyxia took a deep breath for air. "Here's the plan," she started. "We'll both play attack and support. If we're in an open area, I'll support with Meteor, Spiral and Faker and you just attack. If we're in a tight area where your attacks obliterate everything, I'll be in charge of attack and you support by reducing visibility and other stuff."

A tight crash sounded outside, and the twin-tailed Zodiac fitted her doll onto her bandaged wrist so that it took the form of a hand puppet. "They're pretty smart," she muttered. "They'll be wary of you. I don't have a visible weapon yet, so I'll go and let down their guard."

"Right," her friend agreed, and the both of them charged out.

• • •

eh nothing much to say :/


	9. Seven

"I don't know if it was a good idea to pair the other four of them," Ranmaru commented, out of breath as he stabbed a Sporos in the back with one sword while slicing off another's head with his other. "Shizuka and Nyxia won't even take the mission seriously, and Cosima is one of the grumpiest people I've known."

Alpha took just a moment to defeat the beast in front of her, the blade in her hands catching fire and stabbing into the mass of half-solid darkness.

"They're strong, though," she shrugged. "Their abilities blend well with each other's, so we can just hope their personalities do the same."

"Easier said than done." The boy tilted his head, his hands lighting up with bursts of violet light and paralysing the four Sporos trapping him. "I'm pretty sure Christina will be able to somehow handle things—she's a born leader, and Cosima's not one to disagree, and Nyxia _might_ take the role of the strategist she's supposed to be if she's in a good mood."

The blonde blinked at him with an amused look in her jade eyes as she eliminated another enemy with a blast of fire. "You know what I think?" she replied. "I think you're talking too much—we should focus on the Sporos that want to kill us."

Ranmaru rolled his eyes, about to retort back with some other statement, but the creature in front of him stopped him from doing just that.

He tripped as he readied his katanas, and a shadowy tendril took its chance, wrapping its slimy form around the Zodiac and refusing to let go no matter what. The teenager struggled with his sword, trying to free his arm and cut himself free, but the murky shadows emanating from him was bad news.

"Wait a minute!" Alpha muttered, alarmed by her partner's predicament—and a burst of flame melted the limb that had trapped him. Sure enough, the clump of fibres got seared off, and the Sporos hissed at her and recoiled at once.

Noticing the dazed manner in which the affected boy was stumbling around, the girl gritted her teeth, sheathing her sword and clearing a path with a column of fire while dragging her ally into a nearby house.

"Thanks," Ranmaru muttered, wiping a rush of cold sweat off his forehead while leaning against a wall—he had little time to rest. It was only a matter of time before the Sporos destroyed their hideout. "That was my first time getting hit by such an attack."

The Scorpio knelt beside him, her muscles tense as she prepared for another wave of attacks. "I've never seen a Sporos do that," she breathed. "It must be a trait of an insult-born one. What was it like?"

Frowning, the teenager glanced into space for a chance to mull over the subject. "I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but I think they're higher-level Sporos than the ones we've fought before. When it grabbed me, my mind was all muddled up from some kind of voice screaming insults at me."

"Not just an insult-born one, then. So Sporos _do_ have a hierarchy of sorts." Alpha got to her feet, drawing her weapon once again as she peered outside to see a pack of approaching monsters. "You still have a headache, right? Stay behind and get backup while I deal with them first."

Without waiting for her partner to answer, she let herself out, and the next thing Ranmaru heard from outside was the sound of fire incinerating everything in the girl's path.

Letting out a sigh, the boy picked up his phone, slamming the metal device against his ear as the object buzzed ferociously. "This is Ranmaru," he muttered, relieved when he heard Vani mumble a few sleepy words on the other end of the line. "The situation is worse than expected—please send some help to all three cities."

Cutting off the girl's confused tone, he slipped the phone back into his kimono and rushed out to join Alpha—Inpes had been reported to be the city with the lowest infection rate, but this was harder than any mission he'd done.

"They're multiplying!" the Scorpio exclaimed, using one hand to burn a beast to the ground while stabbing at another in a wild manner. "Why didn't you say anything about this, you idiot?"

"Why are you asking me?" the boy grunted back, trapping four Sporos in place as they writhed in pain before solidifying the lacerations on their backs and slicing his sword in one swift moment. "If anything, think about how bad it is in Anima and Divum."

Alpha's eyes narrowed as one of the beasts approached her, disregarding the burn that she had sent to its neck, and she made haste to destroy her opponent with a jet of water. "Let's just hope that our backup gets home soon," she muttered.

There was no reply from behind her—and she didn't know _why,_ but a sense of dread had settled somewhere in her heart—and as she turned to see the boy being swallowed by a mass of shadows that she couldn't even _begin_ to identify.

"Ranma—"

Her shout was cut off, however, as something dull and heavy collided with the back of her head, and the collapse of her mind followed the rapid darkening of her vision.

• • •

"Apparently there's some complications with these type of Sporos!" Nyxia yelled over the chaos, summoning a quicksand trap to paralyse three of the monsters approaching her and shooting weak bursts of white light at them. "Vani just messaged me to say that Sora and Shinju are coming to back us up."

Shizuka made a series of mumbled noises as she sliced through a line of those same beasts, water bursting through their shadowy figures and destroying them. "Wonderful!" she called back. "By the way, Meteor's effect ended—and _why the hell are you checking your phone during a battle?"_

"It rang," the teenager protested, firing yet another series of white bullets at the next Sporos. "By the way, I'm going to distract them, so get your sword ready."

Without even waiting for an answer, the girl jumped into the air, shouting a command of _Faker—_ and her frame seemed to multiply and split, turning into a ring of images that surrounded the monsters and left them growling in confusion.

"Spiral—hole," Nyxia muttered, and the ground beneath her captives began to melt away. It wasn't quite big enough for them to fall through, but it had made them stumble—and the illusions faded back into the air as she landed once more. "Your turn."

"Kumo shokan," Shizuka hissed, knowing that Meteor would take a few minutes to be active again. The air rumbled in agreement, its colour changing as if ink had spilt over its once azure canvas, and the tip of her sword crackled with electricity. "Kan meki!"

Her weapon was far to eager to comply with the command, and a wave of water shot out at her opponents, lightning coursing through the medium in large currents and surrounding the beasts in a beautiful display of electricity.

As the creatures disappeared with unhappy hisses, Nyxia glanced behind her at a narrow path. "They're escaping," she noted. "Switch to support. I'll go ahead and start killing them."

"Man, I wonder what type of insults were said to bring these pieces of shit here," the Constellation sighed, but she agreed and mumbled a command of _Denki no Kodate,_ a crackling screen forming between them and their opponents. "It'll distract them, but you can pass through it."

The hand puppet shifted into her telescope, and Nyxia broke into a sprint, the barrel of her weapon glowing a bright gold as she fired a series of Shooting Stars into the chaos unfolding in the street.

"There are too many of them..." Using Abyss would be too risky; Shizuka would have to take over if she _did_ fall asleep and who knows how much of Anima she would destroy? "Flash," she decided, before shooting down the rest of her opponents while they were still blinded.

"Is it over?" Her question was answered by a growl behind her, and she groaned, the colour of her telescope's filter changing to that of a dark midnight. "Rem!"

The beast behind her roared as a wave of excrutiating pain hit its mind, but it didn't relent, moving forward to bite at the girl's shoulder before letting out a tortured scream and disappearing into the air.

Her eyes widened, however, as she realised that she was no longer where she was supposed to be. Her surroundings were far too different than Anima's humble, simple grounds, and the remaining Sporos were gone.

A noise alerted her to a prescence arriving, and she turned, her grip on her weapon tightening as she aimed it at the emerging figure—she had a sword in hand, and it was only right for her to be this tense—but she carefully lowered it as she realised who she was.

The black-haired girl had a blank expression on her face, but the silent fury beneath her features was plain to see—and why the hell was she pointing her sword _at_ her?

"Shizu...?"

• • •

"Thanks for coming to help," Christina muttered, and the falcons by her side let out a chorus of screeches, slicing at their opponent with their claws and causing one of the monsters around them to dissipate into ash-like substances.

"It's no problem." Gemma's eyes shifted to the side, unwilling to make any further conversation—and an inferno consumed three more of their enemies. "Where's Cosima, though?"

The blonde paused to fire an arrow, watching as the projectile flew through the air and sliced straight through a row of Sporos. "She went off while I was summoning allies," she muttered. "Calla should be helping her, though, so it should be fine."

"Both of them are just as cold, so they might get along," the younger girl shrugged, touching her fingers to a bracelet and activating two daggers that appeared in her hands. "Besides, we have our own problems to deal with here."

Christina cocked her head to the side in response, firing two more arrows and ripping two beasts to bits while the animals above her destroyed one more. Gemma seemed to take the hint, falling silent and diving straight at a cluster of Sporos.

"I think that's the last of them," the Constellation noted, heaving her bow and arrow onto her back. "Let's go help out Cosima and Calla."

• • •

"Why are you here?" Cosima was blunt as always; and she aimed her hand at a tree, uprooting it and flinging it at the group of Sporos in front of her. The monsters disappeared at once, and soon, the only object left was the large plant.

"Not because I want to," the Zodiac next to her grunted. "Vani forced me to come here because there was a slight chance of trouble happening."

With that, she summoned a dagger, muttering commands that Shizuka would have used on a normal life and sending waves of water crashing into the half of the opponents she was in charge of. "Would you have been able to manage on your own?"

"Of course. I'm not weak like someone like you." A scoff escaped the shorter girl's mouth, and she slashed at more of the same beasts with her two daggers. "I would have been just fine."

She winced as the aftereffects of using her ability came pouring down on her, but she ignored the pain and mumbled something like _Scale of Light_ before firing a laser at the monsters. "I'm done with my share of them," she huffed, stepping back and letting her partner handle the rest.

Calla closed her eyes, spikes forming all over her body, and she ripped two out and used them to push through the last batch of Sporos. "Acting all confident and then telling me to kill _your_ enemies..." she snorted. "Hypocritical."

Cosima was about to snap back a reply, but she was interrupted by a worried Christina running up to them.

"It's the other two groups," the blonde breathed. "They've gone missing."

• • •

 **woOO**


	10. Eight

"You've all been gathered here because Divum's the most convenient stabilised city we have." A frown deepened on Lillian's face as she surveyed the five people before her. "Sure, the Sporos in Inpes and Anima have mysteriously vanished too, but it's still risky."

The raven-haired girl shot a tight glare at the younger student who had started to drift off. "Shinju, listen," she groaned. "We're just bringing a first-year like you because your ability would be useful."

"So, we'll first comb the two cities to make sure that they're not anywhere," she continued. "Hunter, Gemma and I will check out Inpes while the other half of you will go to Anima. If we can't find anything, we'll report back to Vani at school who'll come up with another plan."

Her fellow students nodded, causing her to let out a gritted, anxious sigh and nodding at her two team members. "Let's go, then. Inpes isn't too far away from here, and we're getting there by helicopter."

With that, the three of them clambered into their vehicle's crammed room, and the last sound their ears heard was the speedy whir of a motor.

• • •

"Lillian was right," Calla breathed, taking a look at the deserted land around her. "It's like a ghost town or something—there's not even one Sporos left. It's almost creepy."

Sora, however, had already started to get to work—she raised her fan to the sky, watching as the breeze buffeted it in small bursts and caused it to waver with an array of near-invisible patterns. "The wind here doesn't have any remnants of Sporos," she commented. "I'll go to the heart of the city and check it out."

As she disappeared down a road, Shinju stretched her hand out, her scythe appearing in her hands and shimmering against the colours of the night sky. "Alyce, it's good to see you," she chirped, lifting the heavy weapon and pointing it in different directions. "Do you sense any souls here?"

The object went dull for a few moments, but an indigo light soon engulfed it and started blinking to alert its master to a new piece of evidence.

"So...there're some spirits left here?" A smile spread across her face as her grip tightened around the scythe's handle. "They're most probably ones that died some time ago, but they might have seen something. We'll go talk to them and then you can eat them, alright?"

Her weapon almost seemed to give a satisfied nod in contentment, and the both of them went to investigate an abandoned house near the corner of the small settlement—and that left Calla to take on the remaining part of Anima.

She was about to summon Lillian's powers of clairvoyance to see if that would work in anything in the area; maybe the Sporos had the ability to remain hidden or something, but she was cut off by her younger partner appearing and shoving her into an alleyway.

"We found some souls that could give us some clue, but Alyce isn't communicating very well with them," Shinju explained. "Could you use Nyxia and Shizuka's powers to let them know who we're asking about?"

The Zodiac paused for a few moments as she tried to register the girl's sentence. "Right." She wasn't quite sure about Shinju's ability doing the trick, and she felt stupid standing before a patch of empty land, but she was in no position to counter.

Calla first went for Shizuka's ability. A sword appeared in her hands, albeit one that felt brittle and looked like it was made out of something that wasn't quite solid—and she swung it with all the force of the other Constellation, a column of water swirling around its tip and exploding out into the air.

Crushing the sword with a simple motion, she next summoned a telescope of the same material, pointing its cannon towards the sky and making haste to mutter a command of _Shooting Star._ A large burst of golden energy dissipated into the air, and she lowered the weapon with a sigh.

Shinju let out a satisfied hum as she edged closer to where her friend was standing, and her scythe let out a series of blinking lights as it identified faint silhouettes in the air before them.

"All right," she concluded, drawing back as her weapon disappeared in a burst of darkness. "They said that they saw some kind of strange portal that sucked Nyxia and Shizuka in, but that was all. Of course, Alyce has already eaten them, so we won't be able to get any more information."

"Your weapon _what?"_ Trying not to dwell on the Zodiac's statement for too long, Calla turned away, watching as Sora emerged from Anima's town hall. "Anyway, what did you find?"

The blue-haired girl frowned. "Nothing much," she muttered, closing her fan and letting the object hand by her side. "I did get a faint whiff of the Sporos' prescence near the outskirts of the city, though. It might point us in the direction we need to go, but it's getting late. We should rest first."

None of her teammates protested as they made their way to the town hall, and with Shinju soon taking her spot in a large closet and Sora curling up in the only free corner where it was warmer, the Virgo was left with the cold floor.

"Looks like we'll have to camp out tonight." Calla let out a small sigh, letting her hair down and watching her partner lean against a wall of the abandoned building they were in. "What are you reading, Shinju?"

The white-haired girl muttered something incomprehensible before glancing up, the look in her ruby eyes unusually serious. "Manga," she stated, her tone so casual that it seemed as if that fact have been obvious. "It's Ten Count."

Shinju didn't quite look like the type of student who would read innocuous things, but the older girl didn't want to know anything more beyond the title of the book—instead, she cursed at herself for not bringing a sleeping bag and lay down on the ground.

"According to the other group, they've sensed both the Sporos' and the missing students' profiles. They're both missing, however; and they weren't very successful trying to find them." The girl stared at the ceiling with a frown on her face.

"We'll set off towards the direction the winds pointed us in tomorrow, then," Sora called from her position, and her voice was as drowsy as her unguarded stance. "A portal could mean either a Zodiac or a Constellation."

Their short conversation was interrupted by the youngest member of their team, and the white-haired girl blinked at them from over the pages of her manga. "Shizuka and Nyxia seem strong," she offered. "I'm sure they could take care of themselves for a while."

"That's also true," the Pegasus Constellation shrugged, proceeding to lean against the hard cement of the hall's wall. "We should get some sleep, though."

Her two companions nodded, neither of them having the energy to argue any longer, and sleep came much easier than they thought it would have.

• • •

"OK, so something happened, we're stranded in the middle of nowhere and Shizuka's now gone crazy." The twin-tailed girl let out a low grunt of irritation as she ducked under yet another of the girl's blows. "How wonderful."

The Constellation across her didn't pay attention to her muttering; instead, she charged up yet another column of water and fired it at her with a growled command.

Nyxia yelped, having been distracted by her thoughts, and dived out of the way with a low curse—but she was too late, and she felt the compressed pillar of liquid nick her shoulder before she could dodge completely.

"I might kill her if I'm not careful, since there aren't any regeneration spells. She'll kill me if I don't do anything, though..." The Zodiac pondered that one thought while summoning Anticomplex, a series of shields surrounding her and shattering as soon as Shizuka's lightning touched them. "This is tough."

 _I'll have to figure out where we are later. For now—_ The girl scowled as she felt Hasami Are's claw tear into her side—she'd gotten distracted once again—and she startled, hurrying to ready her telescope and aiming at her partner's head. "Rem!"

She was lucky that her friend was under some influence. Rem wouldn't have worked well otherwise, given her fortitude, but she didn't have time to dwell on that.

Shizuka gripped her head, groaning at whatever sudden pain that she had managed to inflict, and Nyxia ended the fight with a small burst of white energy.

They would have to find Hunter if they got out of here—the swelling of her friend's brain would be a problem otherwise, and the regeneration spells wouldn't do the trick, but for now, she had to figure out what was going on.

"It could be a teleportation ability, but Luca's power doesn't work like that." A frown crossed the Zodiac's face, and she walked another few steps, dragging the unconscious girl behind her by the knot of her scarf. "This feels familiar, though."

She barely had enough time to stifle a gasp as the strange colours around them died down, and she could do nothing but watch as the world seemed to be torn into shreds before her very eyes.

There was nothing but silence around her for a few moments after the space had disintegrated into something different, and she took a few moment to inspect the dull hues of her new surroundings—yes, she recognised the dark greys and blacks of the furniture, but she had no idea how they had gotten into the headquarters of Somnum's biggest criminal organisation.

"Don't try to act surprised, Nyxia." The girl perked up as she realised that she recognised the voice, and she turned around to see a blue-haired girl smiling at her. "Weren't you the one who helped to create the machine that got you here?"

The Zodiac took a glance at the large device behind the other teenager, and she rubbed her head in sheepish embarrassment. "Right," she laughed. "I forgot about that. Sorry, Mayui. Wait, were you the one who sent those Sporos to—?"

"That wasn't me." The Constellation replied without a trace of hesitation. "It must have been one of the higher-ups who did that. All they told me was to operate the machine, but I had no idea I was transporting you here, so I have to apologise for that too. I kind of got your other friends stuck here as well."

"I'm guessing that the boss wants me back." A smirk crossed the girl's face. "Why, are you not doing a good enough job as assassin?"

Mayui slapped her friend on the back. "Of course not, idiot. Neco simply functions better when there are two assassins, and you've angered the organisation after you went missing. You're still a member, y'know—you haven't even resigned."

"I get that killing people is fun and all, but I thought you said you were going to quit." Nyxia made a small pout at her former coworker. "You said you were going to quit on behalf of the both of us before coming to Star Patron."

Letting out an exasperated groan, the blue-haired Constellation glanced at the set of iron doors in front of her. "I needed the money," she admitted. "I was going to quit when you told me I could come."

The Zodiac opposite her considered the thought before speaking again. "Ah—I guess you can come now, then. It would be considered an emergency of sorts, and I'll convince the Principal to let you join." A grin crossed her face. "Neco would try to chase us, but we'll leave that for another day—so why not?"

"Why not?" A laugh escaped the other girl's throat, and she turned to the machine. "If you remember how to operate this, then we could try and get us back to your school."

"You had a part to play in this stupid device too, you know." Nyxia started typing on the panel beneath her fingers, and Mayui disappeared down a hallway to re-emerge with two unconscious students. "Anyway, I _think_ this is how it works. I'm not sure, though."

"Only one way to find out, then," her friend responded, and she entered the final code. "You might want to make sure they're not going to wake up anytime soon. If they start panicking, things could get ugly."

The girl nodded, feeling Shizuka start to shift beneath her scarf, and she delivered a swift kick to the girl's stomach before facing Mayui with an innocuous expression. "Everyone will be unconscious for at least the next few minutes."

The teenager in front of her tapped the confirmation panel in response, and light enveloped the group once again.

 ***violently kicks Jingx once again***


	11. Nine

They landed in a huge pile, a mess of tangled arms and legs—and it hadn't been as smooth as they had expected.

"Well, it _did_ get us back," the blue-haired girl stated, and she stepped aside to let Nyxia struggle her way out of the pile of unconscious students. "You're the one who adjusted the settings for this trip, so I can safely say that it's your fault."

The black-haired girl responded with a playful frown, and she reached out to grab Shizuka and Alpha. "Fine, fine," she laughed, raising her head and spotting the entrance of the school several metres away. "Hold on to the other one. I can't carry so many people at once."

"This had better be worth it," Mayui sighed, grabbing the back of Ranmaru's kimono and starting towards the school. "We're going to be in trouble with Neco for this."

"Doesn't matter to me, though." Her partner blinked as she caught up, an innocuous expression flitting over her face as she walked. "I've been in trouble for three years and no one's caught me, so you should be fine. Plus, all you have to do is make a hundred copies of yourself and transfer your consciousness whenever they find you."

"My ability doesn't _exactly_ work like that, but it's a good idea." She tilted to her side as she considered the option, depositing the boy's still form on the steps to Star Patron's door. "Can I leave him here?"

Nyxia gave her a thoughtful glance, her grip loosening around Shizuka's scarf. "If it was Shizu, I would have said yes. Ranmaru's not a bad guy, though, and you have to make a good impression on the Principal if you want to be let in."

With that, she let go of the unconscious Cetus, watching with little remorse as she lay at the base of the steps and walked forward to unlock the door.

"Nyxia! Where did you go—wait, is that the rest of the missing students?" Vani's eyes narrowed as she peeked out to inspect the situation. "I'm not going to question the other girl, but you better have a good explanation for this. We'd sent out students looking for you."

"

The twin-tailed girl yanked Shizuka and Ranmaru in before closing the door behind her. She looked up at her fellow student, and a frown crossed her face as she waited for the Aquarius to call for medical assistance. "It's a very long story, Vani. For a start—"

"Shorten it," the white-haired girl snapped, watching as Christina and Hunter emerged from their rooms to bring the fallen teenagers somewhere else. "Any injuries?"

"Not that I know of, but Shizu might have a slight swelling in her brain." Nyxia paused to consider her words before speaking again. "The Sporos were of a different level than we expected, and some wonderful organisation had the genius plan to use us for hostages. Anyway, where's the principal?"

Vani let out a harried grunt, shooting a doubtful glance towards the two girls opposite her. "In her office," she muttered, and she turned to leave. "I'll have to call the others back now—and since you're the only one that's conscious, you'll have to inform the Principal about the mission."

"Got it," the girl chirped, grabbing hold of Mayui's hand and leading her down the hallway. "The office is down this way. She accepted me with knowledge of my former job, so you should have no trouble getting in as well."

She knocked on the wooden door thrice, her face lighting up as she heard a voice beckoning them in—and the both of them made haste to enter.

"You're back, Nyxia." The woman raised an eyebrow as she caught sight of the teenaged girl, and she gestured for the both of them to sit down. "Who did you bring? And what happened during the time when you were missing?"

The girl let out a small chuckle. "Neco was using Sporos to try and kidnap us," she started. "These insult-born ones are certainly of a much higher level. But there's good news too—I brought Neco's other assassin here. This is Kaede Mayui, my old partner and a former assassin from Neco."

Raising an eyebrow, the principal ran a scrutinising eye over the blue-haired girl. "And I suppose you want me to take her in as well? I know that I accepted you into the school, Nyxia, but imagine what the government and the students would say if they found out—"

The Leo cut her off with a sharp glint in her eye, leaning forward and gazing into the woman's eyes with a familiar intensity that made Mayui smile.

"Star Patron is a sanctuary that trains Zodiacs and Constellations," Nyxia commented sweetly. "There are no exceptions to this rule, Principal. She also has my recommendation, and if you do accept her into the school, Neco will have no means of attack for at least a while. I feel that she has all the qualifications of a student, Mrs. Regnum."

That caused the figure to lean back in her chair, blinking at her words and trying her best not to look stunned. Across her, the Constellation did her best to stifle a laugh, raising her head to meet the woman's grey eyes.

"This is why you shouldn't let an assassin talk for too long, Mrs. Principal." Mayui gave a polite nod, and her eyes sparkled as she spoke. "I hope that you'll take me in."

"I..." Mrs. Regnum ran a hand through her grey hair as she let out a deep sigh. "I can't argue against those points, so I'll let you in. But that aside, which of you was the one who went on a killed a fifth of Somnum's population four years ago?

"I think it was me, with Mayui for support," Nyxia confessed, not a single trace of guilt or remorse lingering on her features. "I can't believe they _still_ won't let me visit after three years."

"You tried to go _back?"_ The woman's face morphed into an expression of mild horror, and she glanced at the twin-tailed girl as if trying to confirm her words. "Even if they didn't know you were behind everything, you could have been discovered!"

"What matters is that everyone is alive and well, right?" The teenager argued back, and she got to her feet with a smile. "That said, I'm going to go to the infirmary to see if Hunter has anything for my shoulder. Mayui, just ask Vani for a room number."

"Got it," the Hydra answered, following Nyxia out of the room and bowing to the principal. "Thanks for everything, Mrs. Regnum. By the way, Nyx, are we allowed to talk to others about who we are?"

Her friend snorted at the question. "Are you an idiot?" she asked, closing the door behind them and glaring at the blue-haired teenager beside her. "Of course not. I'm pretty sure that you helped our leader destroy Levi's village, and Ranmaru still doesn't know who killed his parents."

"Right," the older girl muttered. "I shouldn't have asked that. Anyways—" she clapped her partner on her injured shoulder lightly and watched as she let out a low hiss of pain—"I'll get going."

• • •

"Nyx, tell me what the hell happened while I was out." The Cetus watched as her friend bandaged her shoulder with more ease than she had expected. "I need to know what happened. Did anything bad happened?"

The black-haired girl looked up, glancing past her to where the two medics were tending to Ranmaru's bite mark. "It's nothing you need to know, Shizu." Her voice was calm. "Nothing's going to change even if I do tell you."

"It's not that," the Constellation argued, and she narrowed her eyes as she talked. "Firstly, you weren't injured while you were fighting. Secondly, it's not like me to lose consciousness so suddenly in battle."

Swallowing, the taller girl reached for another roll of bandages, looking at the ground as she considered her options—lie and piss Shizuka off even more, or tell the truth and hit potentially dangerous walls. "Did you get tagged by a Sporos? If so, did you hear anything in your head?"

"What are you—" The older girl shut up for a while, trying to think of anything that had occurred, and she replied with a hesitant nod. "It was just a small bite, though. I killed it right after that, and there was some kind of incessant voice screaming insults at me for a while before I passed out."

Nyxia sucked in a lungful of air as she inched away from her friend's bed. "So I was right," she muttered to herself, and the look in her dark eyes hardened. "Nothing I'm about to say is your fault, so keep that in mind." She winced as she pressed on her wound a little too hard before continuing. "The Sporos took over your mind for a while."

 _"What?"_ Shizuka's voice rose in pitch, and the Leo could do nothing but wave the statement off with a frantic gesture of her arms. "What do you mean? What happened, Nyx?"

"You kind of went full-out crazy," the teenager confessed in a low whisper. "You tried to kill me, and you _would_ have if I hadn't knocked you out in time. But you couldn't control—"

The black-haired girl tensed at that, and her knuckles went white as she gripped at the thick sheets wrapping her body like a cocoon—and she glanced up at the girl, trying to open her mouth to let out a simple apology but _no words came out._

"Shizu. Shizuka." Nyxia's voice was serious as she spoke; an unusual quality for her to possess, and the Cetus refused to shift from her position. "Akihana, calm down. As I was saying, you had no control over what happened. Don't blame yourself."

Biting her lip, the girl managed to stammer out a choked sentenced. "It _was,"_ she protested. "I still hurt one of my friends. Why aren't you mad?"

She was met with an anxious scowl in return, and the Zodiac mulled over her words for a few moments before responding. "Nothing's your fault," she finally repeated, pausing to swipe an ice pack and press it to her shoulder. "Are you like this because your friend died back then?"

Shizuka tensed at that, shooting a glare at her friend and curling in on herself. "How the hell do you even know what happened?"

"Please." Nyxia's calm exterior faded for a second as she rolled her eyes. "I have my ways of getting information. Ignoring that, though—those two events aren't connected in any way. I'm only bringing her up because I thought that would have been a trigger."

"She died because I was too weak," the older girl bit back. " _You_ almost died because my mind was so weak that I couldn't even fight off some stupid Sporos."

"Nyxia, come into the next room!" Christina's voice was faint, and the twin-tailed girl peeked out to see Alpha walking out. "I have to take a look at your injury!"

"Got it!" the Leo shouted back, and she scrambled out of her chair. "Anyway, Shizu, you didn't do anything. It was just the Sporos that tried to kill me, so don't worry—and there are worse things that you could do. Everything's fine."

And with that, she disappeared out of the door.

• • •

"I'm out!" Nyxia stretched with a languid yawn, and she draped an arm over the blue-haired girl's shoulder. "How have you been finding the school so far? What're your classes?"

Mayui glanced down at her timetable with a sigh. "I'm pretty average in all the academic classes, but I'm in pretty good classes for the magic and physical education ones. Also, what was with that message asking me to torment Levi in PE class?"

The younger girl sulked, pointing at the boy in question—who was just ahead and walking to his next class—and trying to aim a rubber band at him. "You have to join in with what Shizuka, Shinju and I do," she announced, releasing the object from her makeshift gun and watching with satisfaction as it hit the back of his head. "It's terribly fun."

"That does sound interesting," her friend laughed, and she nodded to herself as she spoke once again. "If we really do get to torture people for fun, then I love Star Patron even more."

• • •

 **star patron isn't star patron without the daily grandpa burns**


End file.
